About the MacLeod of Lewis and MacKenzie motto.

From "The First Forty Years" published by the CMSUSA, Inc, October
1995
> (the letters themselves were published in Newsletters in 1991)
> This motto has caused a good deal of confusion!
> "In depicting arms, Lord Lyon did not go back to the MacLeod of
Raasay matriculation of 1779, but to the earliest sources available.
> "The Workman Manuscript was compiled about 1565-66, when 'Old'
Ruairidh was chief of the Lewes. The motto was given as 'I birn q
Ise.' This rather puzzling set of letters is old Scots, and may be
written in full 'I birn quil I se.' Birn is old Scots for burn. Quil
is old Scots for while. Se is old Scots for shall, as in 'I se
birn,' I shall burn.
> "The motto thus has nothing to do with seeing, but means I burn
while I shall burn. The motto refers to the crest of a sun, and the
coat of arms of the burning mountain.
> "In the Dunvegan Armorial of about 1582-84, no motto is given for
the MacLeods of the Lewes, though the crest is shown as a sixteen
rayed sun, with eight straight yellow rays and eight wavy red rays.
The supporters are shown as savages issuing from hillocks, and this
is the form taken by Lord Lyon in the new Matriculation.
> "The illustration shows the hillocks, and the burning mountain on
the shield, looking more like a pile of flaming coals, depicted in
the style of the Dunvegan Armorial, rather than the more
conventional later form.
> "In the early 1600s when the chiefly line of the MacLeods of Lewis
disappeared, the Isle of Lewis still remained a tempting prize.
> "The island was seized by the MacKenzies of Kintail and in 1625,
when the chief of the MacKenzies was created an earl, he chose the
title Seaforth, a long loch in Lewis, at whose head he had a hunting
lodge. He took as his crest the burning mountain of Lewis and the
Lewis motto 'Luceo non uro', which in Latin means 'I shine but am
not consumed.' Most MacKenzies think, & incorrectly, that their
crest is a stag's head and that y their motto is 'Cuideach an Righ,'
but the stag's head is the MacKenzie Chiefs coat of arms, and the
crest and motto that of the Seaforth Highlanders, raised by Lord
Seaforth in the 1770s.
> "The daughter of the supposed heir of 'Old' Ruairidh of the Lewes,
married MacKenzie of Tarbat in Easter Ross. He took the burning
mountain of Lewis, and the three legs of Man, and added it to his
own MacKenzie shield. He called his house Castle Leod.
> "The arms of the Chiefs of Dunvegan were first matriculated only
in 1755. In 1779 MacLeod of Raasay matriculated arms, differenced
from those of the Lewis chief, by two crosses. He received the
motto 'Luceo non uro', used by the MacKenzies.
> "Any MacLeod from Lewis, Raasay or the mainland territories of
Gairloch, Coigeach and Assynt may wear the crest badge of Macleod of
the Lewes, now correctly with the motto 'I birn quil I se'."
> Ruairidh H MacLeod, FSA Scot, FSTS